The Travel Chica

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Take Off Your Shirt and Don’t Mind the Suction Cups

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I decided that if I was going to be on a diet of steak, pasta, gelato, dulce de leche, pastries, cheese, cured meat, and wine for a couple months, I should probably look into joining a gym.  I normally run outside, but it’s pretty freaking cold in Buenos Aires late Fall and Winter, especially if you do not have appropriate cold-weather running gear (didn’t fit in my backpack and too expensive to buy here).

Unfortunately, the choice of gyms in Buenos Aires is limited to the type that have a few weights and a stationary bike built in 1985, or you pay a ridiculous amount of money to go to a “real” gym that offers Les Mills classes, multiple cardio machines, and a plethora of strength training equipment.  The tight pants situation was getting a little out of control, so I decided it was worth the money to pay for the real thing.

I joined Always Club.

Always Club is the biggest, and best-equipped gym I have seen in my travels thus far.  It is also where the trendy people who live in Palermo Soho work out.  Read Ayngelina’s post to get a laugh about how the gyms are different in Buenos Aires.

When I signed up and paid for my first month, I was told that I would have to see a doctor for a physical.  I thought, “Wait a minute.  Are you trying to get more money out of money?”  But they assured me that the price of the physical was included.

A strange visit to the doctor’s office.

So on a Tuesday morning, I showed up at the gym for my physical.  A 30-something-year-old man invited me into his office on the second floor of the gym and had me fill out a questionnaire. 

Then he told me to take off my shirt.

I normally have no problem taking off my shirt in front of a medical professional.  But for some reason in a foreign country, I have this part of my brain that is constantly looking for a scam.  Did I mention this guy was NOT wearing a traditional doctors’ coat but rather just jeans and a fleece?  I am not sure why this matters, but in a foreign country, I want some sort of comfort this guy really is a doctor.  Not seeing any other option, I took off my shirt, wondering why he needed me to do this just to listen to my breathing and take my blood pressure.

Then he told me to lay down on the table.

Hmm… getting interesting.  Then he said, “This is going to be cold,” rubbed a cold liquid across my belly, and proceeded to place suctions cups around my ankles and wrists and across my stomach and chest.  I have no idea what the suction cups were measuring, but I was told to breathe normally and stay still for about 60 seconds.  It felt like the suction cups were sending electric currents through me periodically, or maybe they were contracting… who knows.

Then I was handed a printout of the results.  My form was signed.  And I started my workout.

I guess I’m healthy, but who knows what this means.

Photo of my results

After this experience, I remembered my friend Rease recounting her story of the physical she had to get for a job she started in Argentina.  This made me laugh out loud when I read it.  I got off easy!

Have you had a weird medical experience while traveling in another country?

Comments

  1. i do this ECG everyday for work, as nurse and ambulance paramedic, i feel doubtful about having you to go straight for an ECG when there was no declaration nor physical evidence that will warrant further investigation. hmmm

    maybe they just have to include a medical test for them to add some charges on the fee that you paid them. hehe

    oh, looking at the readings, the lead suctions were placed incorrectly, i can see fibrillating lines between QRS segments. other than that, they are right, ur heart is healthy 😉

  2. Hmmm….I might have booked for the door the instant he asked me to take my shirt off! I too, am always on the lookout for a scam when traveling. The strangest medical experience I have encountered while traveling was in Guatemala, on the hunt for a doctor with a friend who was having some bizarre skin rash. We ended up in back alley, found the “office” and were escorted to the “exam room” which looked like something from the 1800’s. It was dark, dusty, and piled high with what appeared to be a random assortment of the “doctor’s” personal belongings. Not a single other person was around. Creepy feelings ensued. Needless to say, we cut our visit short!
    Claire recently posted..On How Marriage is Just Like Traveling

  4. That’s very weird…maybe they need to screen people for heart conditions since it’s risky to exercise intensely if you have a heart condition. You would think a waiver of some sort could cover their butts a little more easily!
    When my fiancé and I were living in Korea he chipped a tooth and had to go to a dentist. We ended up going to a big dental school at a university and they brought him into a big room full of dentist chairs. The first thing they did was put a special sheet covering his whole face except for a hole around his mouth. He is not super comfortable going to the dentist at the best of times, so this made him freak out and it was quickly removed. Looking around the room, everyone had this on to comfort them I suppose. Then they proceeded to check his chipped tooth and the teeth around it to make sure the nerves weren’t dead by holding a special tool onto the teeth that sent an increasingly level of electric current into them until he indicated that he could feel it. Yikes! Not sure what they would do anywhere else, but without being able to understand much, this was a pretty terrifying experience for him. Later he went to a more upscale English-speaking dentist who set up a plan to fix ALL of his teeth, not just the chipped one, and said he would come out looking like a “movie star”! Needless to say, he’d have to be a movie start to afford it as well!
    Carolyn recently posted..Same same but different

    • I actually chipped a tooth on this trip when I was in the airport in Quito on my way to Mexico. I freaked out because I hate going to the dentist at home, and of course the thought of going to one in Latin America scared the hell out of me. I realized nothing was hurting, so I did nothing. It’s still chipped, and I haven’t had any problems. But I think I’m going to have it looked at now that I am in Buenos Aires and have a better comfort-level going to a dentist.
      The Travel Chica recently posted..Take Off Your Shirt and Don’t Mind the Suction Cups

  5. Did you know i’m a doctor too and i perform these kind of test regularly But instead of using suctions cups. I cup my hands while doing the chest exam. As a matter of fact i performed this test last night and found out that her breathing was hindered by two large silicone parts.

    Keep writing, your stories always crack me up !
    Neil Skywalker recently posted..How to talk her into your bed

  6. Talking about bad experiences. My India-Nepal vacation in 2008
    In India i was so sick that i didn’t eat for 5 days, when i finally got a doctor in my hotel room. He prescribed so much antibiotics that it made me hallucinate for 3 days straight. I was feeling a lot better after that. But still more inside the bathroom than outside. I had to take 10 hours bus rides on the bumpiest roads ever. Never felt more home sick in my life.
    Then two weeks later while still being sick i got a horrible sunburn in Nepal, i had a 1.5 inch blister on my leg and was really scared by the sheer size of it. Another round of antibiotics.
    After i returned to Holland i had lost 12 kilos and it looked like i just returned from POW camp. In Holland i recovered a bit and than got sick again and lost 6 kilos in 3 days. I missed my grandfathers funeral and was soo sad that day.
    Last year i missed my grandmothers funeral also, my family must hate me now.
    Neil Skywalker recently posted..How to talk her into your bed

  8. Oh wow, suction cups! So far my few (knock wood) medical experiences abroad haven’t been so bad. The sinus infection in Ireland was no fun, but at least there was no language barrier. I never had antibiotics before that made my mouth taste like I was sucking a coin 24/7, though! Yuck!

    I did have a lot of fun in Mexico trying to explain to the pharmacist who spoke no english that I needed something to unblock my ears, tho! Apparently saying the spanish word for clean and pointing at my ears was not so helpful as I hoped! That took two stops to sort.
    Mark E Tisdale recently posted..Back to Cancun

  11. It is a city law that you have to have a medical before joining a gym in BA and the ECG is part of the requirements of the law. I’ve joined 3 gyms in my times here and had to have it for all of them (same routine in each place – health questionnaire, blood pressure and ECG before you’re given the all clear to give yourself a heart attack on the treadmill). If there is a pool you also have to go and see the nurse every fortnight to be checked for ‘hongos’ – they check your feet, armpits, back of the knees, hands, hair and anywhere else they can think of. Great fun!

  12. love this post, if only for the title!
    technology these days! its awesome you got to keep the print-out.
    in costa rica i got a few stitches thanks to a surfing accident and the doc didnt get the anasthesia right.
    i chose to self-medicate a dislocated knee-cap in guatemala after hearing some horror hospital stories.
    jamie – cloud people adventures recently posted..Laguna Lachua – Guatemala

  13. Yeah like what Ron said this is ECG. I usually get it for my annual physical examination because we have a history of heart attacks in my family. The odd thing about it is that he placed it on your stomach??!! Maybe it is indeed needed for the gym membership in Argentina.

  14. Haha the title of this blog post is amazing. Can’t wait to come check out Buenos Aires for myself, and when I do, I better get an ECG printout for myself.

  16. How about giving birth abroad? Let’s just say they do some things differently in China than in the USA. :)

    Experiencing medical care in another country can bring some apprehension, but I think it is good to experience the medical customs of other cultures. Thanks for sharing.
    Rachel recently posted..Giving Birth in China- Part 1

    • I’ve been told it’s quite common here to go through some process, and nobody ever bothers to explain anything to you. I am guessing if I asked, they would have politely explained. But I don’t think my Spanish vocabulary is developed enough to ask about suction cups and ECG results :-)

  18. This is very interesting. When I was going to Uni in France I had to get a physical and they doctor made me take my shirt AND bra off, because apparently the X-ray they needed couldn’t go through either. That rang a few alarm bells, but the doctor was the one required by the University and I really had no other choice, so off they went! I didn’t have any problems about it though, it was just very odd.
    Danalynn recently posted..How to Square All of Your Corners in GIMP

  20. Haha, OMG. For a second I thought is this an ultrasound she’s getting? They did the same thing to me in India for a real ultrasound though. The weirdest one I had was going to the “foreigner” hospital in Goa raging with traveler’s diarrhoea.

    The doctor decided to check my heartbeat by moving his stethoscope around the circumference of both my breasts. You know, to catch BOTH heartbeats. LOL.

    I love your stories, woman.
    Nomadic Chick recently posted..Vancouver- You Make Me Brave

    • I am so happy my first “doctor experience” was in a place like Buenos Aires. I really am terrified of having a real problem and needing to see a doctor while traveling in a lesser-developed area.

      I assume both of your heartbeats were normal, or did he need to do a “manual examination?”
      The Travel Chica recently posted..A Museum Worth a Trip to the ‘Hood

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